Connecting with Food at the Catalan Family Farm

Our lives are connected to our food.

Everyone knows how important food is to our survival. And lest we forget, our stomach is there to remind us, just like an alarm clock, every few hours (smiles). But there is a deeper physical and emotional connection that goes far beyond satisfying our old friend Hunger. Our lives are connected to our food in ways that are complex, and in ways that we often do not completely understand.

The home garden I spoke of a few days ago helps us make this connection in our own back yard, right down to the roots. Literally. All of our food however may not come from the home garden, but we can still connect with it in this way. And for this reason, yesterday, my neighbor Elizabeth and I travelled to Hollister to visit the farm from where our CSA vegetables come. (Photo on the right shows rows of delicious organic squash ripening in the California sun.)

If you do not know, I work with a group of neighbors and agricultural producers through the Carmel Valley Co-op. We founded the organization specifically to cooperate amongst ourselves and help bring a greater diversity of locally grown foods to our community. We deal exclusively with producers in a fifty mile radius. As part of this, I distribute vegetables in Carmel Valley through a CSA (community supported agriculture) in cooperation with farmer Maria at the Catalan Family Farms. You can read more about the Co-op at http://www.carmelvalleycoop.org/

Our trip had a couple of purposes. One, most definitely, is to keep the connection to the food that not only to I eat, but that I help to bring to our community. The relationship must be personal, and it must be in person. But just as important, we had some business to discuss with Maria as well regarding evolution of the co-op, and it is important our relationships with our partners be as personal as with our food.

When I arrived, I feel that I am truly on a family farm. As you pull into the drive, the house where Maria lives is right up front. Directly next to the staging barn where all of the vegetables are prepared for shipment to CSAs and to the farmer's market. Maria has just introduced eighty hens to the farm. So running around everywhere are chickens foraging through piles of harvest trash earning their livelihood by processing the leftover organic matter that has not market value. The hens will provide eggs. One hen had a dozen or so chicks following her around. Goats and horses too all make living use of the abundance of organic matter. In the fields, there are rows of peppers, right next to tomatoes, squash, strawberries. A diversity of foods, grown together that make up the wonderful boxes we receive every week. I felt that Maria's life was tied inseparably with the farm, as her niece followed us out in to the fields, occasionally snacking on a tomato or strawberry fresh from the field.

Of course, we discussed our business in between our friendly tour and conversation. While the meeting covered a range of topics, the important subject of the day was direct markets. (Photo: Elizabeth and Maria talk business in the field as fresh cherry tomatoes are harvested and stacked by a truck for transport). Everyone wants to get their food locally from farmers who personally care about their farms and their customers. True agriculture is more than profits, but farmers also need to pay their bills and provide for their families. Basically, they need to get their crops to the people who need them. This sounds simple. But in reality it is not. It is amazing how much food is actually wasted as it tries to find it's way to people. Our discussions focused on how to build deeper relationships directly with our customers.

It is my hope that the fruit of these discussions will be that even more of us can have a personal connection with the food that is so important to our existence here on this Earth. And of course, those that grow it and bring it to us.

On the way back to Carmel Valley, Elizabeth and I stopped at another neighbor's to pick apples from her tree. Mmmmm delicious. We picked enough to offer them to Carmel Valley Co-op CSA subscribers. Graven steins I think. You can subscribe at at the Co-op website here.

God Save the Queen

Around 11 o'clock, the phone rang. It was Sue at UPS. "Your bee is here!" On Tuesday I had decided to try re-queening one of the stronger hives that had no brood or queen. Her majesty lifted off Wednesday from just north of Sacramento to make the day journey down here to Carmel. Well, she probably went by truck. But it is 11am, and she is here. So I finished my tea and jumped in the car and rushed down to pick her up.

There she was waiting on a "special counter" at UPS. I peered into one of the air holes and could see a tiny wooden queen cage glued firmly in the center of the box. I would wait until I got back to the farm to open it. But I did have to run an errand over at Pebble. So with Queenie at my side, we drove together over the hill listening (softly) to the Rolling Stones. Mission accomplished, we drove together back to the farm.

Upon returning, I broke out my gear. Yesterday I received some extra internal feeders. Part of the plan was to move feeding inside the hive to discourage robbers. Alas, the new feeders didn't come with floats (a wooden device that keeps bees from losing their footing and drowning in the syrup. Finding an old piece of 2x4, I fired up the saw and made a 1/2 dozen floats. Everything now ready, I donned the bee suit, walked down to the hive site, and lit up the smoker.

I was told that hives that have been without a queen for an extended period can have a rough adjustment to the new queen (once free, I guess re-subjugation is a difficult pill to swallow). Success can be increased by placing a frame or two of brood from one hive into another. So I opened up the hive next door, and found a nice frame with some brood and tried coaxing the bees off of the frame. This turned out to be quite entertaining. The bees were having a great time running from one side of the frame to the other. I would puff them with a little smoke, or softly brush them, and they would all run to the other side of the frame out of sight. After spending some time chasing them around, I became more aggressive with the bee brush, which agitated them some (they hate the "brush" and I generally try to avoid using it, but today I had business to do). A bunch of bees then decided to warn others about the brutish hand that was disturbing them. They all crawled onto the hand, turned their tails high into the air, and started fanning (this is their way of communicating that my hand was up to no good). I watched in amazement for some time. All of the bees fanning in synchronization in the same direction was quite a sight. Their movement actually vibrated my hand continuously, kind of like holding a cell phone in vibrate mode. Only with no pause. Some sensation I must say to actually feel the power of so many small creatures acting in unison. Quite remarkable.

In the photo above, you can see the honey comb this stronger hive had been building out. Beautiful and golden. When things are right, they are right.

Then I opened up the queenless neighbor. The hive still had plenty of bees. So my first task was to go frame by frame to make sure that a queen wasn't hiding in there somewhere. I'm not always quick to spot her, so this takes some time. Once the last frame was removed and no queen was found, I reassembled the hive and opened up her Royal Highness' cardboard coach.

Inside was the wooden cage. And in the wood cage was an energetic queen, moving quickly around with a few attendants who made the journey with her. You can see her on the top of the cage, standing upside down. She has been marked with a big red crimson dot on her thorax.

Each queen has her own scent. This scent drives bee-haviour. If I were to drop Her Majesty into the writhing hive, the other bees would not recognize her perfume. Unlike humans, who would simply shun the offending wearer, the bees would take the matter much more seriously... and kill her. Notice to the right of the cage, the space is filled with a white substance. This is a candy plug. It will take the attendants on the inside, and the workers on the outside a few days to eat their way out of a hole on the right of the cage. Just enough time for the new hive to become familiar with her scent, and come to adore her.

I sandwiched the cage, face down into some wax at the top of the middle frames. Then I installed the new internal feeders and filled them with sugar syrup and closed everything up. Now I wait. On Sunday or Monday I will return to ensure she has safely been able to escape from her sweet prison. God save the queen.

Recipe for Zucchini Mousaka

Yesterday I spoke a bit about tending the home garden and peace that comes from growing your own meals. Today, I thought I would share the details of one of the dishes that I grew, called Zucchini Mousaka.

Zucchini is an excellent vegetable to grow in the home garden for a number of reasons. First, it is easy to grow, and quite prolific. A handfull of well tended plants will produce and produce. As a squash, they provide meaningful substance. Essentially the "meat" of the meal. Second, there are hundreds of ways to prepare zucchini, so that life never gets boring. From soups to mousaka. So moving past steamed squash, let's see what we can do with our Zucchini out of the home garden.

One of the most important practices in cooking or preparing food, is to connect with it. Prepare food in a way that meets your mood. Eating is very intimate. You will bring the food into your body, and it will make you, literally. The entire process and form must enhance your life and way of living. Food is not only nutrients. In preparing my zucchini on this day, I chose the Bulgarian recipe for Tikvichki (Zucchini) Mousaka. Since my wife is from Bulgaria, there is a strong emotional connection for her with this dish, a comfort food if you will. For me, who did not grow up on it, it is somewhat exotic and adventerous. This day, I was expecting a visit from a friend down from the San Francisco Bay Area. This seemed like a nice way to communicate our essence through food. Eitherway the connection is there.

In the morning, I went to the garden to collect the ingredients for the dish. I chose 3 sumptuous zucchini. I also picked some bunching onions (these were grown from a gift by a friend), and carrots. In the bowl, there is also sweet basil, and grape leaves. The grape leaves I collected for the Sarmi's, which I will write up at a later time.

An aside about the grape leaves, I have several vines in home garden area. Mostly wine varieties that I planted years ago as an experiment. I have never ever got any grapes out of them. The birds just love grapes too much. Some day I will have to net them. Once I tried, but I did not secure the nets at the bottom, and the little birdies came in from the bottom and cleaned me out. For now, I have resigned myself to giving them the grapes, and eating the leaves (smiles). Maybe next year I will try to make some homemade wine.

Back to the mousaka....

The traditional recipe for Mousaka calls for:

2 lbs. Zucchini

2-4 tbsp. oil

2 eggs

1/2 lb feta cheese.

Then for the topping, you need:

3 eggs

3/4 cup milk

Assorted spices including salt, pepper, and dill

I supplied the home grown ingredients as follows:

Zucchini -> from the home garden

Oil -> olive oil from my neighbor's farm

Eggs -> from my neighbors free range chickens. If you live in the area, you can buy eggs from Elizabeth too. Click here for details.

Feta & milk -> ummm, I had to buy this, currently no local supplier.

Spices -> I didn't use salt or pepper (I personally don't like to cook w/ salt). And I didn't have any dill. So instead, I chopped up the carrot tops instead. I also grated the carrots and used those for added flavor.

Preparing the Mousaka

1. I peeled and sliced the zucchini into flat strips lengthwise. Maybe a little finger's width wide. Then I sauteed them in the olive oil until soft. Lightly brush a glass oven dish (rectangular) with olive oil, then place 1/2 the zucchini inside to completely cover the bottom. Then I added the grated carrots as another layer on top of this. Beat the 2 eggs and mix in the feta cheese and pour over the zucchini. Then completely cover this mixture with the remaining 1/2 of the zucchini. Bake for 40 minutes or so at 350 in the oven.

2. Mix the topping ingredients, 3 eggs, milk, and chopped carrot tops. After 40 minutes of baking above, remove and pour this topping over the top, and return to the oven to bake for another 10 minutes or so until the topping becomes firm.

Remove from the oven, and let cool a bit. Then you can cut the mousaka into squares, and add a dollup of mint yogurt sauce (I make this by mixing mint from the home garden, into yogurt that I buy from the store). Serve and eat! Mmmm.

So how did we do on getting everything from the home garden? Well we certainly got most of the main ingredients from the garden, and fortunately I have neighbors that raise olives and chickens. The only other ingredients that I could not supply were the dairy: cheese and milk. There are dishes that do not require these ingredients. We will explore those in the future. After all, food is an adventure.

The Home Garden

When you live on the farm, you have to have a family vegetable garden. It's just part of the deal. It really isn't that much work, and it can be quite rewarding. It is really very creative and it helps connect directly to the earth when you experience your food come directly from the ground, plan the seasons, sew the seeds, then directly prepare the dishes with the bounty. A fresh produce store is literally a few steps outside the kitchen. Very fulfilling.

This year, I've been raising everything from seed. Last year, I had quite some challenge getting the seeds to germinate early enough outdoors. This year, I build a cold frame, which is a kind of poor man's green house. It was simple enough (see description below). The cold frame was WONDERFUL. I easily started tomatoes, peppers, squash, pumpkins, and basil. Not to mention hardened off my new lavender plants, and started a bunch of rosemary cuttings. This was probably the most productive project I did this year.

Right now, the tomatoes are coming in very nicely. But they were a bit too bushy. So I trimmed the leaves at the bottom and centers that weren't necessary to promote fruit development, and I trained some of the vines that were falling to the ground. I had mixed some tomatoes in the Basil bed, so I pulled these back (they were falling in the basil), and tied them up on sticks. They look much happier now. The basil is going crazy. I've been frantically heading off the flowers. But the plants prove very aggressive. It is difficult for me to keep up. I think it might be "pesto time"! I even harvested some basil, tomatoes and peppers. The tomatoes made a beautiful tomato and basil salad. The peppers I will roast tomorrow.

This year I've been working on building enough diversity in the garden that I can make complete meals entirely home grown. A few days ago, I made a zucchini moussaka and Bulgarian sarmi's (stuffed grape leaves, akin to Greek and Turkish dolmas) entirely with vegetables from the garden. The only ingredients that didn't come form the garden were: olive oil (from the Carmel Valley Olive Company about 6 miles away), eggs (from Lizard Ranch right next door), and rice (unfortunately from far away). But the grape leaves, zucchini, garlic, onions, peppers, and carrots all came from the family garden. I also made a yogurt and mint sauce. The yogurt was Californian, and the mint from the family garden.

It is very rewarding to grow a medley of vegetables, that is, enough to make interesting dishes. A few weeks ago, I put in some black beans. This is an experiment, as I have never grown black beans before. But my goal is to make a "black bean felafel" assuming I get a good enough harvest. A few more weeks and I'll start sewing the winter veggies!

More About the Bees

Oh, today I also contacted my bee supplier. I'm going to try to re-queen that one hive. So a brand new queen is in transit down to Lavender Hill. She arrives on Thursday, when I will introduce her to her new minions. I am so hoping she is able to save the hive and get them back on track to survive the winter. I called some other bee folks and am still trying to accurately diagnose the trouble. That's 90% of the battle, knowing what you are dealing with. Right now, the best assessment I have is that the 2008 fire season made for a poor year to introduce new hives in Tassajara. But Thursday, I'll do more investigation when I establish the new queen.

Building a Cold Frame

I made a 10 foot by 10 foot cold frame. The materials were 4 1x12" 10 foot redwood (I would suggest 2x12", but it is quite expensive, so I made do with 1x12" and then put a 2x4 frame around the top where the lid seats). With these, I formed the base. Then 6 10 foot 2x4's made the lid. Four for the sides, and two middle rails. The lid was a little shaky, so I added 4 x 1 foot "corners" (45 degree angles on the edges) for lateral stability. Then I used a superjack actuator (I had one from an old C-Band satellite dish I don't use) and a thermostat to automatically crack the lid when the temperature gets too hot. This is essential if you don't want to cook the baby plants on a hot day (and it gets HOT out here 100+ on some days).

Bee Troubles Grow

Today, another neighbor called me concerned about her bees. She saw foreign bees fighting with hers at the entrance to their hive trying to keep them out, and wasps were entering unfettered. Given the trouble that has been going around since the fire, she was duly concerned.

I contacted a bee keeper up in Central Valley to ask advice. Check for the queen, they said. But hurry, you may still have time, but the season is getting late. So I headed over with my suit to help her search the hive for the queen. What we found was not good.

Very few bees inside. There were also many foreign invaders. Wasps, unfamiliar bees, and ants. We spent about an hour checking frame by frame, then cleaning out manually all of the creatures that were inside that were not supposed to be there. Then we reassembled the hive. Nope. No queen. We came up with a strategy to remove the entrance feeders and go with internal feeders to discourage robbing. Also we would try to re-queen the colony. And we put the smallest entrance reducer we had to make the hive more defensible. I was still concerned just because of the small numbers of bees that seemed to be left, but right now, this seems the most we can do at this point in the year.

We actually sat for quite some time, at the front of the hive, watching who enters and leaves and the mortal combat at the entrance. The robbers would come, sometimes two, three at a time, then one or two bees would engage. They would embrace, with stingers pointed at each other, hoping to get a fatal sting. Sometimes they would roll off the entrance, still embracing, and fall into the grass. Occasionally, one would land a sting, the other going still. And often, during such a skirmish, an opportunistic wasp would slip by the battling guards, and enter the hive. Sad, but fascinating.

I returned to check my hives as well. Unfortunately, the weak hive I had reported a couple of days ago had failed completely. Nobody home but the robbers. All of the brood that had been there, had perished. I cleaned all of this out, and blocked up the entrance to no more critters would get inside. I didn't want other bees to go inside either in case of disease.

Checking two other hives, one seemed normal, I found the queen milling about (on the last frame, of course!). The other I couldn't find her. While that hive seemed much much stronger than my neighbors, I plan to implement the same strategy with internal feeder, smaller entrance, and re-queen. Tomorrow I'll check some of the others.

Such depressing work cleaning out a dead hive. Kind of like wandering around in someone's house after they abandon it. And so quiet compared to the usually hum of happy bees tending their young. I still cannot get over the silence. I really hope to sort this out. Tomorrow I'll make a few calls and seek more advice.

Later in the evening, tending my basil, I had to be careful when pinching off the flowers not to accidentally squish a bee. Despite the troubles, the garden is still full of bees from the other hives. It brings hope and resolve to see that life goes on. The bees go on. Pollenation goes on. I only hope I can learn how to keep all of the hives harmoniously in balance in the coming seasons.

Carmel Lavender Distillery Open for Business

As forshadowed earlier, today my neighbors Kathy and Alfred from the Carmel Valley Olive Company brought their beautiful lavender over for distillation.

We planned to run four separate lavender batches in order to maintain the purity of the different lavender varieties. So the entire distillation process takes at least six hours. Long enough to get hungry. Since I would be busy w/ distillation, the first order of the day is to ensure there is ample food for hungry distillers :) It is a personal goal of mine to create a deep connection with food. Thus the menu must mix locally produced food with the purpose of the day and the day's participants: olive and lavender producers! The evening before I had prepared an appropriate faire. (See distilling menu below) So at 8am I started to lay out the spread on our farm table in the kitchen. Then I spent the rest of the morning prepping the distiller and getting ready for our guests. See the photo on the right of the Carmel Lavender crane operator lowering the basket into the loader/dumper.

Today's Distillation Menu
- Fresh Jalapeno Pepper and Carrot Falafel
- Olive and Basil Tapenade
- Quinoa Caviar in Lavender Bread Cups (adapted from Tassajara Cook Book)
- Lavender Bread and Organic Pepper and Garden Tomato Bruschetta

Today is special as well because two good friends from Palo Alto called and said they would come down to see the distillation. The last time I had seen Susan and Karl in the early Spring when we took a day trip down to Big Sur together to visit an open house / party at the Hawthorne Gallery (and just bumble around Big Sur in general). Susan had called earlier this week asking to come see the lavender, one day after I had finished my harvest! But fortune was with us, and today we would be processing more lavender. And they would get to see lavender after all.

Back to distilling. Kathy had brought four different varieties as I mentioned: Grosso, Provence, Angustifolia, and Twickel Purple (also an Angustifolia). We set to distilling. We had the most of the Angustifolia and Twickel Purple. This gave us very good yield for Angustifolias. Probably about 250ml combinded. Interestingly, the Grosso and Provence, which should have had higher yields had only a combined yield of about 100-125ml. Granted there was only half as much, but I would have expected higher yields still for an x-intermedia. Well, this is the joy of farming. The plants tell you, not the other way around ;)

Look at the beautiful golden colors of the three oils on the left. In contrast, the Grosso on the right had a very pale color. This was uncharacteristic. Given the low yeild, it made us wonder if the lavender was truly Grosso. Maybe next year we will pay more attention to the spikes!

All and all, a wonderful day of beautiful lavender fragrances, good friends, good chats, and golden scented lavender oil to show for the trouble.

Bee Troubles

The other day, I got a phone call. My neighbor and fellow beekeeper told me that another mutual neighbor and beekeeper had just called her. Her hive was in trouble. During a routine check, she opened the hive to find almost no bees inside. Her initial assessment was that some yellow jacket wasps had pillaged the hive and killed the bees.

I had opened up my hives a few weeks ago. But when you hear stories like that, you have to have a looksie. Today I suited up and marched out, smoker in hand, to open up my hives and make sure they were all okay. To tell the truth, I have been worried. The farm is located quite close to the Ventana Wilderness. Yes, the same forest that stretches all the way down to Big Sur. And yes, the same forest that in July was home to the sixth largest forest fire in the state. In fact, the fire made it as close as two miles to the farm. For over a month, the air was smokey. Neighbors were reporting bee swarms. We all know that bees are highly affected by smoke, so I was naturally concerned what affect this could have on the poor critters. Bee keepers use smoke because it causes the bees to calm. The usually return to the hive and try to eat. Gorge themselves really. No one know why. There is speculation that it is an instinct exactly to protect bees from forest fires. If you are going to loose your home, better eat up, because it might take a long while before you can establish a new one. Yes, I have been wondering what all that smoke, every day, for a month would do to them.

I picked one hive I noticed had few bees coming and going. When I lifted the lid, I knew immediately something was wrong. Usually, when you lift the lid, you can hear the familiar buzzing sound of all those little ladies going about their business. Today, there was only silence. Inside, there were a few bees, but the hive was empty. Ohhh.....

Well, the hive wasn't completely empty, there were a few hive robbers. Bees, wasps, ants, etc. But my suspicion was that the bees in there were not the original occupants. The combs were empty. No babies, no honey. There was quite a few cells packed w/ pollen. But that was it. I did find quite a few supercedure cells, the cells the bees make when they are trying to replace the queen. I figure she had perished, and they tried to replace her. But why?

The next hive I checked was chaulk full of bees and honey. All was well there. So I moved on.

The third hive was good too. But the forth was dead. Same scenario. This time there were dead bees on the inner cover under the lid. The remaining hives were not dead, but one other seems to be failing. In that one, there were quite a few dead bees. But there is some fairly advanced larvae. Almost no honey though.

Two of the hives that were still thriving didn't seem to have much honey reserves though. So I've started feeding them sugar syrup again. There is only a few more months to winter. I definitely want them to build up their reserves before colder weather sets in. I will have to clean out the other hives, and restart them next spring.

I was pretty bummed. I suppose farming can't always smell like lavender.

The Olive Connection

Today was delivery day for the Carmel Valley Co-op vegetables. I pick up vegetable boxes from Catalan Family Farms in Hollister, and shuttle them out to Carmel Valley. Today's boxes have delicious cherry tomatoes, and some wonderful green and purple peppers. I look forward to stuffing them with lentils and spice! You can find more information about organic food boxes and subscriptions at: http://www.carmelvalleycoop.org/

What does that have to do with olives? Well, nothing. But on the way back, I stopped by Alfred and Kathy's farm. They have an olive farm and make the most wonderful olive oil you can imagine. Each bottle is like pure liquid olives. Fantastic if you have the chance to try it (their oils can be found at many small stores around Carmel Valley including the Carmel Valley Village Market). My visit, however, was not to sample olive oil. Kathy has a wonderful patch of lavender. It includes species as Angustifolia, Grosso, Twickle Purple, Provence, and Lisa Marie to name a few.

Kathy is interested in distilling oil from her lavender. Having just recently come into possession of an essential oil distiller :) she asked me to stop by and take a look. It most definitely is ready for harvest! After a brief conversation, a lovely tour of the wild olive trees that Alfred has propogated and been nurturing, and some delicious apricots from their tree, we settled on Sunday. They will bring the crop by then and we will distill from three different varieties, the Grosso, the Provence, and the Angustifolia. This should give us some nice oil samples. Regardless, Sunday promises to smell wonderful around Lavender Hill!

Bunch Harvest

Today is Day 3 of the harvest. We continued to distill oil, and today was also the bunch harvest. Bunch harvest is when we harvest our dried bunches. Dried lavender bunches are extrememly popular. In addition to looking pretty, they smell divine. Over time, when the scent subsides, you can squeeze them gently to revitalize the scent.

With bunch harvesting, the bunches are hand cut, then tied in the field. Here are a row of bunches waiting for pick-up. The bunches are hung upside down for a minimum of two weeks in a darkened drying barn before they are retied with raffia and labeled.

Today we had lots of animal visitors during harvest. Bees, butterflies. And as always, Ceasar, our lavender loving house cat. Ceasar likes to hang out with us during harvest. You can usually find him lying near by between the lavender plants, or sometimes under the distiller. He likes to decrease harvest efficiency by placing his body right in front of the next plant to cut, requiring you to move him aside first. He tirelessly repeats this endearing sequence :) Oh well, it *is* a lavender harvest after all!

Ceasar's tricks and all, we finished the harvest today.

Oil Harvest

Today, the distillery became fully operational. Only two days after the 1200 mile round-trip journey to bring the distillery home, it had found itself in it's new temporary location on Lavender Hill. After a few dry runs yesterday evening, I awoke bright and early to begin the first live runs. After so much time and care in raising this year's buds, it is important that everything go smoothly so that their struggle to bloom and flourish under the hot Tassajara Sun is not wasted in vain.

But first things first. After firing up the boiler, I went out to the field to begin to harvest the fresh buds to become this year's golden oil. I do my harvest by hand, cutting the lavender stalks from the plants with a scythe and placing the freshly cut buds in the harvest tub.

The bounty was splendid. Beautiful purple buds with such a wonderful scent. I was very anxious to find out what kind of oil content this year's crop yields.

The bees seemed anxious to know as well. The curious worker bee would occasion by to sniff the buds. Care must be taken when handling the flowers not to accidentally grab more than just lavender. As I was preparing the distillery, one playful little bee landed for a moment on my shoulder. I fancied her a small fuzzy parrot. Of course, nothing to find she soon set aloft one again.

Once I had harvested enough lavender for a run, the flowers were placed into the boiler.

How it Works

The distillation process is a fairly simple physical process of steam distillation. The basic concept is to put the lavender together with pure water from our well 700 feet into the Tassajara Earth into a big pot. The furnace under the pot generates steam which is passed through the lavender. Then the steam is condensed back into a liquid. The liquid contains the essense of the flower including the oil, as well as other constituents which remain dissolved in the water. The water is now called hydrosol. The oil and the hydrosol are separated. Of course the usual monotony of details including temperature, water levels, etc. all must be monitored and adjusted. But the result is pure vibrant essential oil and hydrosol.

Success! Today we had two successful runs. Tomorrow the process continues bright and early!